oriya wedding

indian weddings can be quite an affair and are no less synonymous than the the 'big fat greek weddings', if any they're all the more gargantuan, like a lumbering elephant slowly making its way thru the 10-15 day proceedings.

Now of course the ever improvising indians have shortened it to 4 day affairs citing the vagaries of professional lives including the leave constaints of the marrying couple.

I think now having a house wife is a big liability, if u need a decent lifestyle, then ur wife ought to earn somewhat similar to ur package but its at the risk of a satisfied family life, well i can commnt on it only after i gt some first hand experience.

This year is the year of marriages for me. Its heppening all around, 3 cousins, handful of friends, many college mates, wherever i see someone i know is donning the wedding hat. god bless all of them!! I got to attend 2 marriages, after a long long time i was able to participate in a family gathering of this proportion. Its an extremely happy event, with so many happy reunoins, functions, ceremonies, rituals, a must have experience.

The important rituals in chronological order are as follows.

1.Mangana(the Bride's brother called 'Baradhara' comes to groom's place to give him the invitation) - the invitation is read out by a pandit from the bride's place to the elders of the groom's household followed by some pooja.

2.Haldi Ceremony - On the morning of the grooms departure for the wedding, all the ladies in the house put lotsa haldi (turmeric) on him, probably to make him look fairer and for the antiseptic properties, it also acts good against suntan. he's made to look like a monkey n then allowed to go for a bath, all the others have a gala time teasing him. I've seen women in chennai with so much haldi on their face that their skin actually looks an amalgam of black n yellow, u wud think its a new breed. But once they start speaking... well looks are deceptive.

3.Marriage - Its a a host of proceedings clubbed together, starting rom the groom leaving his house, throwing rice back at his mom followed by the baraat going to the bride's place (hectic dancing activity), then some pooja where in all the elders from bride n groom's side performing poojas with their respective candidates. Then comes the main marriage pooja followed by the unwinding of the knot by the bride's sister('saali'), she demands for some moolah for opening this knot, its a funny exercise. Next come thje games, handled by the bride's side elderly women, the groom is made to loose these, fun nevertheless.

4.Bidai - The Bride leaves her fathers house for the groom's place. Generally a teary affair and I refrain from capturing these scenes.

5.Arrival - The groom's sis ('nananda' in oriya) blocks the bride's way and asks for gifts before letting her enter the house, again its fun. Then the bride puts jaggery (sticky gur) onto all her dewars (brothers in law), kinda like holi but here we can eat the color, sometimes the dewars also feel like reciprocating this gesture(i missed this one, forgot we too cud do this). The Bride is accompanied by her brothers so that she's not harassed much. As I have seen, its the groom's side who end up troubling the brothers n they scamper for cover asap, leaving the bride to our mercy. Come on!! we ain't so bad yaar.

6.Reception - There are generally 3 receptions, one from the bride's side, one by the groom's side n one by both for their friends in their workplace(wherever they're settling). Its a pain for the couple, they have to sit painted and dressed thruout the event and keep smiling at whoever arrives to shower their blessings on them. Sometimes a camera is permanently focussed on the couple and the live feed is shown outside to the guests, leaving the couple in a dilemma as even to eat might look improper u know, when thr are ppl waiting in queue to bless u.

7. Fourth day pooja - This is where there is no elder's involvement. the couple starts their life from this pooja, till this day the bride is worshipped as a goddess (after all so much pooja was done unto her all these days) and is barred from touching anyone's feet or seeking blessings. Hence from this pooja they are actually man and wife and can live together.

The above was a very short description of an ideal 'oriya' wedding. It used to be much more stretched out in the days of yore but nowadays what i have described is pretty much what happens. In between there's lots of conch blowing and 'hulhuling' for warding off evil spirits, u gotta be there in those sessions, it can make u seriously constipated, I pity the evil spirits who lurk around to haunt on such occasions.

One good thing I picked up in these 2 marriages is the subtle art of conch blowing. I cna saw i'm well on my way to master it. Feeling very proud.

Some wedding pics can be found at my orkut profile i'll leave one pic each for all the occasions i mentioned above.

The amount of involvement that u feel in these occasions is good enuff to leave u craving for more such occasions but the irony is that I'm next in line after this batch of cousins is thru and i'm in no mood to surrender my bachelorhood so soon. Hopefully the plans I have in my mind bear fruit and I get what I want. Its tough trying to please all. Its just impossible according to Newton's laws, somebody's gotta loose i can just make it 'Zor ka jhatka dheere se lage' mild.

Its an important lesson i've learnt over the years, u shud be extremely careful not to hurt those who care for u the most. Ok now I'm veering off course, lets stop it here for now. I gotta put one more post for my oriya literary prowess (all gained in this recent trip, thanks to my chacha (uncle) who, with his son was in hyperdrive this wedding and made sure there was a not a dull moment thruout the stay).

blogger doesn't allow me to attach more than 5 pics at a time, its a shame. Lets see if i can pull out a jugaad.

Done somehow but the sequence is in a disarray, make out for urself which is what.